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Saturday, May 5, 2012

P4S~ DAY 5 Avoiding Foolishness

Dearest Mamas,
How is your prayer challenge going? It’s so quiet on this end, but my heart is full of prayers for each of you! Be sure to leave a comment below when you do today’s ACTION STEPS so I can know how to specifically pray for your family.
Today we are praying for our sons to avoid foolishness. Not always an easy task, is it? Just as we desire for our sons to be men of integrity, we want them to have friends of integrity too. Just as Proverbs 27: 17 tells us:
Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.”
Yes, this is what we desire for our sons, to not only avoid foolishness, but to keep company with other men that will encourage each other to be more like Christ!
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My husband and my eldest son (center) and 2 of my husband's best friends~ Brothers in Christ ♥
Consider helping your sons to understand the difference between the foolish man and the wise man using the Bible's definitions in Psalm 14:1 and Proverbs 9:10. Perhaps do a study of all of the descriptions of the foolish man found in Scripture and help your sons to understand that foolishness always brings negative consequences … now or later.


DAY 5 ACTION STEPS

READ | Read through the section titled, “Men Set Apart” (pg. 20-21) and work through any (or all) of the Study Questions that enhance your time in this challenge!
PRAY | Work through the 10 prayers on Avoiding Foolishness (pg. 22) using whatever method works best for you! (See DAY ONE for ideas)
COMMENT | Today, we’re going to discuss Study Question #5: “Does/Do your son(s) have friends who challenge them to be more like Christ? If not, pray that God would send these friends to provide a positive influence for them.” Feel free to share those prayers below.

Day Five – Avoiding Foolishness
Encouragement from Brooke
In their book, Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp have this to say about foolishness:
"The Bible's definition of foolishness is concise. 'The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'' (Psalm 14:1). If there is no God, I am autonomous - a law unto myself. There is no consideration in life more profound than, 'What will please me?' Children don't say those words, but such foolish thoughts are the underlying justifications for hundred of impulses every day. It is expressed in all the acts of disobedience, selfishness, willful temper, and compulsive self-love." (p 112)
He sits across from me with his head down, this little love of mine who steals my heart and breaks it all at the same time. I ask him for the fourth time that day to tell me how many kinds of men there are in this world. His answer? Two.
The foolish man, who says in his heart there is no God, and acts like a law unto himself.
The wise man, who fears God and obeys Him.
Foolish choices bring unpleasant consequences. But the wise man has security in loving God and all the power of heaven on his side. And I ask him again to tell me what kind of man he wants to be. His answer? The wise man.
I know there will come a day when my little love will have to own this faith, but I believe with all my heart that teaching both of my sons to think in biblical terms now will help them choose in biblical terms later.
Avoiding Foolishness
May __________ avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless (Titus 3:9).
May __________ have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; for they breed quarrels (2 Timothy 2:23).
May __________ not participate in filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:4).
May __________ hear these words of Yours, act on them, and avoid being like a foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matthew 7:26).
May __________ be more like a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take advice (Ecclesiastes 4:13).
May __________ not be foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures (Titus 3:3).
May __________ leave the presence of a fool, for there he will not meet words of knowledge (Proverbs 14:7).
May __________ not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Ephesians 5:17).
May our sons be like a poor person who walks in his integrity rather than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool (Proverbs 19:1).
May __________ have a wise man’s heart inclining him to the right, and not a fool’s heart inclining to the left (Ecclesiastes 10:2).

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